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If Smartphone Wars Are Over, Who Won?

Winners and losers should be easier to tell apart than they are these days. The President promised we would get tired of “Winning.” He was half right.

In sports, score determines the winner and the loser. Unless you’re the Saints playing in the SuperDome en route to another Super Bowl appearance. Tell me again; why do we have instant replay? Guess what? Steve Jobs said the smartphone wars are over.

Who Won?

We humans love to come together but not as much as we love to tear each other apart. Humans battle one another ad nauseam. What humans make battle for supremacy over what other humans make. Take Microsoft. Puhleeze.

If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing.

Steve was given the chance to run Apple again in 1997 and the result was a number of next great things. iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, just to hit the highlights reel. So, what’s this about Jobs and the smartphone wars?

The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago

Oh, OK. I get it. It’s an equivocation. He meant Microsoft and the PC wars, and since those are over and the Mac remains more prosperous than ever, then it’s safe to say the same could be said of the so-called smartphone wars.

The smartphone wars are over. Done. Android won a long time ago

See how that works?

Now we know. Android won. Yet, we’re not talking sports or elections, so how do we determine whether the score fits the game? In politics, based upon votes cast and electoral votes cast, you can’t always figure out the winner in advance. In sports, numbers matter.

In the technology world, some numbers matter more than others. Fair enough, right? Android has more than 2.5-billion users on the planet while iPhone and iPad barely have 1-billion. Android won.

Yet, if you choose other numbers– for example, total revenue of iOS devices; iPhone and iPad– Apple won because revenue is more important than actual numbers of something sold. And, if you choose yet another number– for example, total profit of such gadgets; Apple wins again.

So, how are the smartphone wars over?

I’m not one to tout too many surveys beyond my own, but there are some that take a good measure of what is going on the world. Jacob Siegal explains it:

Smartphone users are more likely to stick with the same mobile operating system than ever before.

That survey result from CIRP tells me the obvious. There isn’t much jumping from one ship to another. Most people have settled in and they are comfortable with what they have, Android or iPhone.

CIRP co-founder Mike Levin:

Both systems have seen loyalty trending upward for the past several quarters, as customers have become comfortable with the features and consistency oftheir operating system. Learning a new operating system takes effort, so fewer and fewer customers have found the need to switch. This, coupled with the quality and reliability of new phones is likely contributing to the longer upgrade cycles we are witnessing.

That settles it. The wars are over. Who won?

On one hand, obviously, Microsoft Android OS. On the other hand, Apple and iPhone because they own the entire industry’s revenue and profit share; metrics far more important than mere unit sales or marketshare.

So, if the PC wars and the smartphone wars are over, can we just get back to using our products and enjoying instead of dealing with all these verbal fistfights from the nattering nabobs of negativism?

5G? Meh!

About Kate MacKenzie

I'm from Brooklyn, New York, used a Mac for more than 25 years, and have followed Apple since the last century. Read more of my articles here. My personal site, PixoBebo, is all about Apple. Follow me on Twitter.